David,

I realize that your "Computer Problem" post is old, but I thought I might be able to pass along some useful information. In my "day job" (and when I'm helping friends with their computer problems too), I find an ever-increasing number of "shape-shifting" Trojans, spyware apps, and to a lesser degree viruses. These days it isn't uncommon for cleanup and eradication to take weeks. Mind you, I've been doing this kind of work for over fifteen years, and I've never seen it this bad.

Although the damage has been done, perhaps I can make some suggestions to prevent such a serious reinfection in the future? Is this a server or workstation in a business environment, or your personal machine? If it's a business environment, Sophos Antivirus (www.sophos.com) is hands-down the best AV product on the market. We used Symantec Antivirus, with mixed success, until four years ago when they, despite our having an Enterprise agreement with them, could not fix a problem caused by one of their mandatory upgrades. We switched to Sophos and we've had no outbreaks to speak of ever since. It automatically checks hourly for updates, and pushes out to all the workstations any updates it finds.

If this is a home PC, many friends (and people for whom I've performed consulting) have been happy with my recommendation of AVG Antivirus, which has a free product for home use. (www.grisoft.com).

Beyond antivirus software, Microsoft AntiSpyware, a free, albeit beta, product, is very effective at keeping your system clean. It's less effective at removing the more sneaky and shape-shifting invaders, but overall a great product. (And I don't praise Microsoft often!) Removal of the most stubborn infections requires running a combination of products, usually in "safe mode". Here's what I regularly use for cleanup of the tenacious buggers:

• Spybot Search and Destroy
• Pocket KillBox
• SpyWare Blaster
• Hijack This!
• AdAware

There are others, but this is all I can think of at present.

Beyond that, it is advisable to get rid of Internet Explorer and use Mozilla Firefox instead. While not immune, they issue updates and patches much more readily than does Microsoft when a vulnerability is discovered.

I hope this is of some use to you. Anytime I can be of assistance with technology issues, please don't hesitate to email me.